"The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats nor intellectual achievements, but moral acts: to return love for hate, to include the excluded, and to say, "I was wrong." - Sydney J. Harris

6/23/2006

Chess Boxing

So today on ESPN.com, there was an article about chessboxing. In this new sport, the competitors alternate rounds between chess and boxing. Round one starts with a game of chess. After the end of the round, the board is removed from the ring and the "athletes" don boxing gloves and try to knock each other out. There are four ways to win. First, your opponent gives up. Two, knockout. Three, checkmate. Four, the chess has a time limit, so if your opponent runs out of time you win.

The inventor of the sport claims that it is the ultimate sport because it combines both brains and brawn. He forsees a day in which international disputes are settled through a nice game or match of chessboxing.

Now I am not a big fan of boxing, and I really cant stand watching chess, but I am intrigued by this sport. It could lead to a great explosion of similar games. familyfeudbasketball, jeopardytennis, checkersraquetball, etc. I think it would be a nice change, and maybe then elite athletes would stay in school for an education instead of going pro immediately, since they will have to compete with their minds as well as their bodies.

3 comments:

While I think, in theory, that it's nice to have both a healthy body and a healthy mind, I would feel bad for chess experts and competitive scrabble players who might be pressured to compete athletically. On the other hand, I think would enjoy priceisrightfootball.